Ton-up Lavant celebrate - and look forward to season No 101

More than 160 players, supporters and friends of the club past and present attended a combined end-of-season presentation night and centenary party at Lavant Village Hall.

It was a fitting and fantastic way for the club to mark the end of their 100th season by inviting past players and friends to attend the current team’s awards night.

Ages ranged from 17-year-olds who are in the Lavant under-18 team through to Lavant legends who played for the team as far back as the 1940s, such as Eric Dean and Mr Lavant himself Tony Bleach, both now in their early 80s.

Another Lavant legend, Pete Lovegrove, who started playing for the team in the early 1970s and carried on to the end of the 90s, also attended, taking along his treasured scrapbook of photos and reports.

Many of these had never been seen before, such as the Lavant Sunday side team with the 1974-75 season’s divison-two runners-up shield (pictured above).

This and other photos, plus memorabilia from the past, will be entered on to the club’s website where the club are generating a comprehensive living archive of the club’s history from its origins in 1910 through to the present day.

This can be viewed on the history section at www.lavantfc.co.uk

Current first-team manager and village rector Dave Parker, who hosted the evening, said: “You get a real sense of pride and belonging when you attend an evening as significant as this. This is the true meaning of grass-roots football and the village community combined.

“I’m already planning for the forthcoming season, our 101st, which we hope will be our best to date.”

Anyone who’d like to be part of the team is invited to pre-season training, starting in mid-July on the village green.

Dates and times will be published on the club website and in the Observer.